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Approximate Sparsity Class and Minimax Estimation

Lucas Z. Zhang

arXiv 12 Aug 2025 · Econometrics

arXiv:2508.09278 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

Motivated by the orthogonal series density estimation in $L^2([0,1],\mu)$, in this project we consider a new class of functions that we call the approximate sparsity class. This new class is characterized by the rate of decay of the individual Fourier coefficients for a given orthonormal basis. We establish the $L^2([0,1],\mu)$ metric entropy of such class, with which we show the minimax rate of convergence. For the density subset in this class, we propose an adaptive density estimator based on a hard-thresholding procedure that achieves this minimax rate up to a $\log$ term.

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31
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80
in-text mentions
31
distinct cited
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self-citations
15,151
main-text words

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Lorentz, G. G (1966) Metric entropy and approximation1.000104100%
2Belloni, A., Chernozhukov, V., Chetverikov, D., Hansen, C., and Kato… (2018) High-dimensional econometrics and regularized GMM1.00094100%
3Yang, Y. and Barron, A (1999) Information-theoretic determination of minimax rates of convergence1.00083100%
4Smolyak, S. A (1960) The $$-entropy of classes $E_s^,k(B)$ and $W_s^(B)$ in metric $L^2$0.87452100%
5Bousquet, O (2003) Concentration inequalities for sub-additive functions using the entropy method0.84333100%
6Gajek,L (1986) On improving density estimators which are not bona fide functions0.81142100%
7Bunea, F., Tsybakov, A. B., Wegkamp, M. H., and Barbu, A (2010) Spades and mixture models0.73732100%
8Tsybakov, A. B (2008) Introduction to Nonparametric Estimation0.73732100%
9Belloni, A., Chernozhukov, V., Chetverikov, D., and Hansen, C (2012) Sparse models and methods for optimal instruments with an application to eminent domain0.64422100%
10Efromovich, S. Y (2008) Nonparametric Curve Estimation: Methods, Theory, and Applications0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 31 scored citations.